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Here we have the alternation of `good tidings' with peace and salvation in the first
grouping, and the correspondence of this good tidings with the proclamation "Thy God
reigneth". Here therefore we have "The gospel of the kingdom" in essence. There can be
no question as to the fact that the Hebrew word basar "To announce good tidings" means
"to preach the gospel", for it occurs for the last time in Isaiah, in the sixty first chapter:
"He hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek . . . . . to proclaim liberty
to the captives" (61: 1),
and is quoted by the Saviour of Himself in His synagogue witness at Nazareth
(Luke.iv.18). When it can be said to Israel "Thy God reigneth" then will have come "the
acceptable year of the Lord", the "Jubile", and then also will be finished the "mystery of
God" as He hath declared to His servants the prophets (Rev. 10: 7; 11: 15).
The word translated "to bring good tidings" was we have said is the Hebrew basar,
and as this word occurs seven times in this prophecy, we will give the references:
A | 40: 9. "O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion."
"O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem."
"Behold your God."
B | 41: 27. "From the first I have said to Zion."
God infinitely above all gods.
A | 52: 7. "Him that bringeth good tidings."
"That brought good tidings of good."
"Thy God reigneth."
B | 61: 1. "Anointed . . . to preach good tidings to the meek."
(quotes from A.V., R.V. and others).
This accounts for six of the references. The seventh is the answer to the good tidings
brought to Israel, "They shall show forth the praises of the Lord" (Isa. 60: 6). Here is a
reminder that preaching is twofold. It brings good tidings of grace to the sinner, but it
also announces the good tidings of the glory of the Lord. "The gospel of the glory"
(II.Cor.iv.4) is sometimes obscured by the presentation of grace to the sinner. As shown
in the reference found in Isaiah this aspect completes the publication of God's good
tidings.
The association in Isa. 52: 7 and 8 of messengers on the mountains, and watchmen
who lift up their voices is best understood by a people who have suffered the threat of
invasion, and whose method of signaling the approach of either the enemy or the
deliverer is much the same as that used in this land at the approach of the Spanish
Armada.
"High on St. Michael's Mount it shone: it shone on Beachy Head. Far on the deep,
the Spaniard saw, along each southern shire, Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those
twinkling points of fire."
The words "They shall see eye to eye" found in Isa. 52: 8 do not carry the meaning of
agreement which the figurative use of the phrase has in English.